


Big Brother...s?

by 17kylie_readsalot17



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, Love Confessions, Overprotective Brothers, saizo is awkward and formal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 10:42:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15705612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/17kylie_readsalot17/pseuds/17kylie_readsalot17
Summary: Saizo finally manages to confess to Corrin, but Ryoma finds out before Saizo has the chance to tell him--finding Saizo at the center of an interrogation with the Crown Prince of Nohr and the High Prince of Hoshido.





	Big Brother...s?

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to marry Saizo my first time through, but fell in love with Silas, so it took until my 6th play through to actually marry that damn ninja.

“Lady Corrin,” Saizo said, stepping out of the shadows. She started and whipped around to find him with his mask lowered, showing several more scars traveling from chin to cheek.

“Saizo, you startled me,” she said, focusing on his good eye rather than how different and fantastic he looked when he didn’t hide the lower half of his face.

“I apologize, Lady Corrin. I was hoping to speak with you, but I don’t have time now. May I come by tonight, after Lord Ryoma has retired?”

“Of course,” she said, just able to hide the nervous rise in her voice. Saizo had said he no longer held suspicions about her, yet he was being very cryptic and quite worrisome. “Though I won’t be in my quarters, I was going to meet Lilith tonight.” Really, she much hoped he would change his mind. It was enough to spend time with him during the day when she still had her wits about her, but there was something about night in the Astral Realm that made her more of a romantic than she normally was.  She didn’t know what she would do if Saizo brought his mixed signals with him that night. But he didn’t change his mind.

“I will see you at Lilith’s Temple then.” And with that he was gone. So, with her heart in her throat and more than nervous for their late-night encounter, Corrin turned away as well to finish her rounds for the evening.

Before night had the chance to fall, Corrin excused Jakob, who was meant to be on duty that night.

“Are you certain?” he asked, eyes narrowed slightly in concern.

Corrin smiled, “Yes Jakob, I’m sure. I’ll be with Lilith for the majority of the evening, then Ryoma’s retainer will see me home. Go spend some time with your family, Jakob. I promise I’ll be fine.”

He still seemed reluctant, but he had a child on the way, and as much as he wished to dedicate himself to Corrin’s safety, she wasn’t his only concern anymore. “Thank you, Lady Corrin. Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to ask Felicia to stay with you tonight?”

“No, really, I’ll be alright. I can’t have my retainers tiring themselves out before battle—nor can I have them neglecting their own needs. Go on, I’ll see myself to the temple.”

He bowed deeply then turned to run quickly for his own quarters. She watched him go with a fond smile. He really had grown up since they entered the war. Of course, he still had his rivalry with Takumi and teased Silas to no end, but he’d come into his own as a husband. And she told Lilith just that when she arrived. The dragon smiled.

“Jakob has seen the least change of the four of you,” she said after they’d finished eating.

“What do you mean by that? He’s matured far more than I have.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Felicia and Flora have both become exceptional young women, and you’re no different.”

Corrin smiled as well, showing teeth just as sharp as Lilith’s. “Now sure, Felicia and Flora have grown tremendously since they’ve escaped from under King Garon’s hand, as has Jakob. Which I have to say, pleases me to no end. He placed an overwhelming stress on them by putting me in their charge—we both know I’m no easy princess to manage.”

Lilith’s laugh was a beautiful thing. It sounded like water flowing through a calm brook. “You refuse to see how much you have grown, Lady Corrin. Yes, Jakob manages to balance his family and work life—an incredible feat for such an impossible boy, yet you manage to balance yours with an entire army. And let me say, your family is far more complicated than his. How many siblings do you have now? How many of them are going to be kings of rival nations?”

“You tease me.”

“I have no choice, you’re blind to your own potential.”

“Well how do you suppose I fix that, Lil?”

“I suppose you can’t. But there will be someone who helps you realize it one day.”

Lilith was too tricky for her own good. Corrin’s mind drifted to the one person it could have when speaking of blindness and unrealized potential, and as through she’d summoned him, the door to the temple opened slowly. Corrin stood up and Lilith flew above her head to watch Saizo step inside. He walked forwards and knelt in front of Lilith to place Daikon radishes on the altar. Then he stood back up and held out his hand. Lilith brushed her nose against his palm, then flew behind him and under his outstretched arm before returning to her place beside Corrin. “Your wound has healed since I last saw you, Saizo.”

He rolled his shoulder once. “Thanks to you, it has.” He nodded his head to her then looked to Corrin. “Lady Corrin, may we speak, or do you wish to remain a while longer?”

“We may speak. Goodbye, Lil. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

She made a noise only a dragon could, but it sounded oddly similar to that of a child’s suggestive “Oh la-la.”

Corrin gave Lilith a strange look before Saizo closed the door behind them.

“Would you like to speak by the pond?” Corrin suggested, but Saizo shook his head.

“I saw my brother fishing there on my way. Besides, I would like a little more privacy than the pond could give us.”

“My quarters then?”

“Silas was nearby. Picking berries.”

Corrin couldn’t help but laugh. “My retainers are everywhere. I can’t keep track of them all.” She looked up at Saizo and saw a smile playing in his eye. “Where would you like to go, then?”

There was hesitation in his words but he made his suggestion regardless. “Would the soldier quarters be too far of a walk?”

Wordlessly, they changed directions towards the barracks, but when Corrin bumped Saizo’s arm, she looked back up at him. “What did Lilith mean about your wound? Were you injured?”

“It was nothing serious.”

“Saizo, no wound should be taken lightly, no matter how small. What happened?”

They crossed the courtyard, walking between the Nohrian circle and Hoshidian square to reach the entrance to the soldier quarters. Corrin smiled and spoke a quick greeting to Takumi and Leo, who were battling each other in shogi, before she and Saizo entered the quarters. “It was during the last invasion. I was caught off-guard by the alarm and took a blow to my shoulder.”

“Saizo—”

“Please, I don’t wish to worry you. The healers were busy with those injured more gravely. When I visited Lilith after the battle, she took care of me.”

“I didn’t know you visited her.”

“Of course I do. She’s saved my life many times during invasions, as well as Lord Ryoma’s and yours, Lady Corrin.” He kept his voice steady and his gaze forwards but Corrin noticed he was less composed than usual.

“She appreciates the company, I’m sure.”

“Yes, though she likes yours more. I’m not quite as talkative.”

 Corrin couldn’t tell if he was teasing her or being serious and she looked towards him once more, but his expression was inscrutable. They stopped in front of his door and he looked down the hallway to be sure no one was nearby before opening it and allowing Corrin inside.

Taking a look around, Corrin was slightly startled. She’d assumed Saizo would be a master of minimalism much like his brother, but he apparently was nothing of the sort. There were decorative weapons hanging on the walls as well as many trinkets that must’ve come from his home village. There were also books scattered around the room and several potted bonsai trees sitting on his desk or in the window sill. She tore her eyes away, not wanting to be caught taking in every detail of how Saizo lived, and looked back towards him. “S—so what was it you wished to speak about?”

Saizo sighed and removed his mask, setting it aside. “Lady Corrin, I wished to apologize once more for how I treated you during our first few weeks as allies.”

“Saizo, we’ve already discussed this, I understand. To be honest I didn’t trust you immediately either.” He tilted his head at that confession, seemingly surprised. “I just mean it takes a while to build loyalty, to bridge the gap between very different cultures.”

“I suppose that is true, but I took it quite far and I’m very sorry about that.” Corrin opened her mouth to assure him once more but he continued speaking. “And if you are able to accept my apology, I was hoping you might be able to accept a proposal as well.”

Corrin’s posture straightened in an instant. “Proposal?”

“Ah, that wasn’t the right way to phrase that, but I suppose it’s not entirely wrong. It’s not marriage I’m proposing—but a courtship. If you would have me that is. I know our statuses are wildly different, but in times of war, things like that—”

“Yes,” Corrin interrupted.

“Pardon?”

“Yes, Saizo,” she said, a smile growing on her face. “If you need it, you have my _permission_ to court me.” Her tone was teasing but she meant it from the bottom of her heart.

Saizo was taken aback. He should have thought farther ahead, but he wasn’t confident enough to entertain the idea that she would accept. “Really?”

She laughed and it struck him in the chest like a blow from a ballista. “Really. I do care for you. I’d like to see where this goes.”

He was flushed now, and let out a heavy sigh. “Oh, thank the gods,” he said in a rush. Corrin laughed again, never having seen him react in such a way before. “Though, if it is alright with you, I would like to speak with Ryoma before we begin—”

“The courtship.” Her smile was so bright he could hardly look at her without the giddy feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. “I understand. He’ll be thrilled.”

 

Corrin woke as light poured in through the open doorway, glaring into her eye from over Saizo’s shoulder. “Saizo,” Ryoma boomed, his tone deep and worrisome. “Have you seen Corrin? She’s not in her treehouse, and none of her retainers know where she is. Jakob said either you or Kagero—”

Corrin had sat up and Ryoma squinted into the darkness to make out her pointed ears and bright eyes across the room. “Big Brother,” she tried but he didn’t seem to be listening. He was trying too hard to determine what had happened and why his younger sister was lying in his sleeping retainer’s bed. He took a deep breath and stepped back into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

“Ryoma, wait!” Corrin called after him before climbing over Saizo. He woke when she was all but straddling him and made a choked sort of noise, but she had no time to enjoy the blush on his face. She landed unevenly on the floor and threw open the doors.

Ryoma was nearly at the end of the hallway, so she ran after him. “Ryoma, please, wait!” He didn’t slow down. “It’s not what it looks like.”

She caught up with him the moment he stepped outside and stopped in front of him. The courtyard was empty, and the very first light of day warmed the horizon. “Then what was it, Little Sister? Because it looked to me like you were sharing a bed with Saizo the Fifth.”

“Well, okay yeah, it was what it looked like, but that was all that happened. We spoke last night and, yes, I do like him but he would never take it beyond that before he spoke with you. He was going to, but it was late and none of my retainers were around so I didn’t want to go home. He let me stay. He gave me the bed, I insisted we share, but that was all. I wouldn’t look this well rested if anything else had happened.”

Ryoma braced his temples and sighed. Corrin really wished she could take back the last thing she’d said. “Saizo,” he said into the air and Saizo appeared before him instantly, kneeling. He had taken the time to place his mask on once more. “Walk Corrin home, then meet me in my office.”

“Ryoma,” Corrin protested. “Don’t you think I should hear whatever you have to say as well?”

“No, little sister, I don’t. This is between me and my retainer. Saizo, take her home.”

“Ryoma!” She tried once more, but neither one of them were taking her worries into account.

Saizo stood and took Corrin’s elbow, “Please, it’ll be okay,” he whispered. She relented only because she didn’t want to shake off his hand in front of Ryoma in fear she would make this worse.

They walked back to the tree in silence and he waited for her to climb the ladder before turning and walking resignedly to Ryoma’s office. Corrin waited until he had gone far enough before descending once more and trying to follow him from a distance. He noticed her immediately and walked back to where she stood. “Saizo, he’s being ridiculous. Let me come.”

He lowered his mask once more and leaned in to brush a kiss against her cheek before leaning away and shouting, “Kaze!”

Ninjas were far too light on their feet, for Kaze was by her side in half a moment and she didn’t realize it until he spoke. “Brother, good morning. Lady Corrin, it is quite early, why are you awake?”

“She was looking for one of her retainers, I’m glad you were nearby.” Saizo said, ignoring Corrin’s pointed glare. “Will you accompany her back to her home?”

Kaze nodded and smiled at Corrin, “Shall we?”

She didn’t look pleased with him at all, but if she were to be wandering about looking to eavesdrop when an invasion occurred, Saizo couldn’t imagine how much worse the situation could become. So he arrived, alone, at Ryoma’s open door. He stepped inside and dropped quickly to one knee. Ryoma sat at his chair while Xander stood behind him, leaned against the wall.

“Stand, Saizo, and close the door.” Ryoma asked, and Saizo did as he was asked.

“I knew I would have to have this conversation with someone soon,” Xander sighed. “I just hoped it would be about Camilla. At least that way I could handle this alone. As it is, thank you for calling me here, Ryoma.”

“You would have done the same thing in my shoes, I’m certain.” Ryoma finally looked up from his desk. “Saizo, how long have you been planning on confessing to Corrin.”

Oh gods, this was not the way he’d hoped this would go down. “Several weeks, My Lord.”

“And you did not bring it to me?”

“I did not think Lady Corrin would appreciate it if I asked your permission, Lord Ryoma.”

“That’s a fair point. Hinoka was furious when that happened to her,” Ryoma said. “Yet I don’t mean asking for permission. If you didn’t bring it to me as your boss or as Corrin’s brother, I would have hoped you would bring it to me as a friend.”

“Lord Ryoma, I mean no offence, but how could I have? Had she rejected my proposal, it would have been humiliating if you knew my intent.”

Xander laughed lowly and walked to the other side of the desk to stand behind Saizo and place a hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to kill him if you keep on like this. Saizo, Ryoma does not mean to interrogate you. We merely wanted to remind you that you are pursing a princess of both Nohr and Hoshido, and that if you take one step out of line, you are answering to the future kings of both countries. That is not a position you want to find yourself in. So, please, behave yourself around the little princess, do you understand?”

No, Xander wasn’t interrogating him. He was threatening him.

“I understand, Prince Xander,” Saizo answered. His voice was hoarser than usual, and everyone in the room noticed. That made a smile grow on the Crown Prince’s face and the hand on his shoulder tightened before he let go and slapped Saizo on the arm.

“I expect you to be slacking off far more often now, understand?” Ryoma said. Saizo, at first, thought he was joking, but the next day when he rose at the crack of dawn to escort Ryoma to his diplomacy meeting, he was dismissed immediately.

“I wasn’t kidding, Saizo. Take her breakfast—or flowers. You may be my greatest friend, but Xander may not be so merciful if you don’t do this right.”


End file.
